Chapter Twenty Six - Titles

24 August 2010

Back when I was working on Dark Calling, I wrote a blog about how I come up with titles for my books, and here it is!

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I can reveal exclusively here (after breaking the news for the first time anywhere on my Message Board yesterday) that the title for Book 9 of The Demonata is ... DARK CALLING. It’s a title I’m especially pleased with, partly because it suits the book very well and has a few different meanings (which will become apparent when you read the book), but mostly because it’s the most difficult time I’ve ever had coming up with the title!!!! Titles vary from book to book. Sometimes the title will come to me first, and I’ll have it in place from the very beginning. Other times I’ll come up with it during the writing process. And occasionally it will only come late in the day, when the book has been edited and is nearing the printing stage. In this instance the first working title was The Divine Horror. I was never happy with that, but at least it gave me something to call the book!! A year and a half later, I shortened it to Divine Horror, in case that would grab me any more, but it didn’t. Nearly a year after that, I changed it to Eternity’s Crux. I really liked that title, as it ties in very neatly with the storyline and hints at the sci-fi elements that play an important part in this book. But I suspected it was a title that other people wouldn’t warm to, and as soon as it went to my editor, that was confirmed. The trouble was, we couldn’t come up with anything else that both of us liked!!! It needed to be short and snappy, yet it also needed to relate to the plot. But book 9 has a very complicated plot!!! We bounced ideas back and forth. Some of the titles in the mix included Destiny’s Eyes, Creatures of the Dark, Dark Matters. We both liked the “dark” theme, so I played with it a bit more and came up with lots of titles, such as Dark Eyes, Monsters of the Dark, and Call of the Dark. That last title struck a chord with me. I knew it wasn’t quite right, but I sensed I was close. With the production team baying for a title (we literally came within 24 hours of the deadline!!!), I played around with Call of the Dark on my way to the theatre (I was going to see a play called Fat Girl), and came up with ... Dark Calling. I instantly knew the problem had been solved, and luckily my editor agreed straightaway as soon as I sent it to her. And so the title of book 9 came to be. I hope you like it as much as we do—tough luck if you don’t!